Night in the Woods

   After spending dozens of hours on Horizon, probably 10 or so on Ghost Recon Wildlands in a co op play through and then at least a dozen (probably more) on Zelda (yes, I got a Switch and breath of the wild, more on that another time) I needed something to break up the ridiculous lengths of games going on. So I went for night in the Woods. Of course, this doesn't stop the fact that Mass effect has been sitting unopened on a shelf for a week and now Persona 5 reviews are out and apparently it's amazing. Jeez. At least Yooka-Laylee isn't out for 2 weeks... Just a short one today to crank it out before heading back to Hyrule (that's where Zelda is set btw).

   Much like Oxenfree this is a 2D story based game where a bunch of youths try to make sense of a crazy situation and even though it does have many things in common with Oxenfree, it is quite different. For one, it takes place over a whole 'fall' (that's autumn for us normal people), which means it advances at a slower pace and really helps character building, which really is the games strong point. The 4 main characters of Mae (the person you play as), Gregg, Angus and Bae are fantastically designed characters with loads of personality put in to them, which is impressive from a game with text only speech and no real facial animations. Side characters add to the main plot but it really is all about these four and how you communicate with them and who you spend time with to build relationships and get more out of these characters.
   Unlike Oxenfree again there is gameplay in here too, albeit it occasional. There are puzzle platform dream sequences and a way to explore the town by jumping around power lines to find mini games and back story on the town, who wouldn't want to increase the towns rat problem by feeding them stolen pretzels? Light bulb rounders is also a thing (yes rounders). There is a whole extra game on your computer as well, it's not just for instant messaging and making a shark dance, there's a passable top down dungeon crawler in there. What a Bizarre place to put it...
   Not everything is as good as Oxenfree in this game. Despite how much better the build is for the main story, the actual reveal and ending are pretty bad. Not only does the twist come out of nowhere but the characters are happy to let the horrors of what has happened to them wash away like water off of Howards' back. This strange turn of events totally goes against their characters and leaves a sour taste in the mouth after an extremely interesting set up. This is not to say the game is not worth playing, it's very good up to that point, just be prepared to be let down. Oh,  One last point, the characters are all anthropomorphic animals, but then there's real animals as well. Odd.